1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to microscope apparatuses.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-103088, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
With a conventional microscope apparatus, there is a known technique for convecting dried air into a space between a specimen and an objective lens to avoid dew formation on the objective lens (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2006-308746).
In the related art, immersion liquid is filled between the objective lens and a specimen as one way to carry out high-resolution microscope observation (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2005-62687). This microscope apparatus includes immersion-liquid supplying means for supplying the immersion liquid to a space between an immersion objective lens and the specimen.
However, when observing a specimen such as a cell for a long time, and when the natural drying and supply of the immersion-liquid are repeated, there is a problem in that staining caused by dried immersion liquid occurs over time on a surface of a container accommodating the specimen, which makes the acquired image unclear.
The present invention provides a microscope apparatus that can prevent an image from becoming unclear over time in long-term observation.